Abstract
Development of novel membranes with optimal performance, selectivity, and stability is a key research area in membrane technology. In the present work aromatic polyamidoimideurea (PAIU) is synthesized and tested as promising membrane material for separation of water and alcohol mixtures. The PAIU membrane structure, density, and transport properties are studied. Mass transfer of water and isopropanol through the membrane is estimated by sorption and pervaporation tests to determine equilibrium sorption degree, diffusion coefficients, flux through the membrane, and separation factor. Two techniques of sorption study from liquid and from vapor phases are used as novel approach to experimental study of mass transfer. The vapor sorption calorimetry permits to analyze the behavior of the polymer material in sorption process. In pervaporation of water–isopropanol mixture, almost pure water mainly permeates through PAIU membrane. To improve the performance, a double layer membrane containing a thin PAIU layer on the surface of porous poly(phenylene oxide) support is developed. The double layer membrane is extremely effective in dehydration of isopropanol.
Highlights
Membrane technologies have found its application in industrial and ecological processes due to their operational simplicity, low power consumption, modular and compact equipment as compared to physical and chemical analogues[1, 2]
The measured value of water contact angle indicates the hydrophilic nature of the surface of PAIU membrane
Mass transfer of water and isopropanol through PAIU membrane was studied by sorption and pervaporation tests to determine main transport parameters: sorption degree, diffusion coefficients, flux through the membrane and separation factor
Summary
Membrane technologies have found its application in industrial and ecological processes due to their operational simplicity, low power consumption, modular and compact equipment as compared to physical and chemical analogues[1, 2]. Pervaporation is a membrane process that allows separating the components of the liquid mixture by transfer through the membrane by permeation and vaporization[3]. In pervaporation the limiting stage that determines the intensity of the transfer is sorption and dissolution of the components in the membrane material; solubility is a thermodynamic constituent of the mass transfer process[5]. Separation of water–isopropanol mixture is one of the known applications of pervaporation[7,8,9]. Pervaporation does not require any chemicals addition to effective separation of water– alcohol mixture; it is considered as a prospective approach to outperform conventional separation technologies. Efficiency of polymer membrane materials depends on numerous factors: the chemical nature of macromolecules, physicochemical properties and structure of membrane, properties of separating mixture, etc. Polybenzimidazoles have been applied for the dehydration of organic solvents[21]
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